


family resemblance

by ashley_in_the_know



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Percy and Vex having at least one tiefling child is the hill I will die on, tiefling children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 18:08:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14721029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashley_in_the_know/pseuds/ashley_in_the_know
Summary: Percy and Vex's daughter has some questions about her new baby brother





	family resemblance

“Mama?”

Elaina’s voice pipes up from the corner of the nursery, where the four year old is currently on her tip-toes, trying to peer into Julia and Westley’s bassinet.

“What is it, nugget?” Vex asks, scooping her daughter up so she can see her newborn siblings and planting a kiss on her cheek.

Elaina’s brow furrows adorably as she looks down at the twins. “Why does Westley look like Auntie Zhara?”

Vex hesitates, the question catching her off guard for a moment (She’ll blame it on the sleep deprivation. As it turns out, doubling the number of children you have in one go is really fucking exhausting.). “You know, darling, I’m not entirely sure,” she says. “Sometimes these things just happen.”

It’s a lie. She and Percy had discussed the possibility of a tiefling child when they first decided to start a family. He had made deals with demons and devils and, well, that was how bloodlines got tainted (She hates that term, though.  _Tainted._ Like it’s something to be ashamed of, having a tiefling child. It reminds her too much of growing up in Syngorn, and she’ll be damned if her son is made to feel less than for something he can’t control). So they knew it was a possibility, just as they knew they wouldn’t love them any less or treat them any differently if it did happen.

Still, it had been a shock when Westley was born; deep maroon skin, gently swishing tail, and two little nubs of horns just starting to protrude at his crown. The entire room had gone silent, save for Julia’s cries, and Vex had feared the worst. But then she’d seen her baby, and her panic morphed into stunned silence (It’s because it was twins, she thinks, looking back. She’d expected them to look alike, like her and Vax). Cassandra had been the one to break the silence with a dazed, “Well, at least you’ll never mistake them for each other.” Vex snorted, Percy let out a slightly maniacal laugh, and the tension was broken.

“Why though?” Elaina asks, bringing Vex back to the present.

“Well,” she starts carefully, “sometimes, for whatever reason, people make deals with demons or devils and fiendish blood gets mixed into a human or elven or whatever bloodline. And then, sometimes many, many,  _many_  years down the line, someone like your little brother is born.”

“Oh.” Elaina studies Westley for a moment, looks back to Vex, then back to Westley. “So, he still belongs to us then?” she asks fretfully. “No one’s coming to take him away?”

“Oh, darling, no,” Vex assures her, hugging her closer. “No one’s going to take him away, I promise.” She kisses the top of Elaina’s head. “Westley is ours, nugget. He just looks a little different, that’s all.”

Elaina nods against her shoulder. “Okay,” she says, though she still sounds uncertain.

“How about this, darling,” Vex starts, “Let’s get you ready for a nap, and by the time you wake up, Auntie Zhara will be here and you can talk to her about it, alright?”

“Alright,” she says, visibly brightening at the idea. She doesn’t even fuss about the nap, her disdain for them outweighed by the prospect of seeing her favorite person in the world.

Vex becomes aware of Percy’s presence somewhere between leaving the nursery and tucking Elaina in. She closes the door with a gentle click and steps into her husband’s welcome embrace.

“Hi,” she murmurs, suddenly feeling every moment of sleeplessness from the past week.

“Hi yourself,” he says, kissing her forehead.

“Freddie?”

“Asleep in the library,” he assures her. “Trinket is watching over him.”

She smiles into his chest, nods. “How much did you hear?” she asks.

He starts leading her back to the nursery, supporting most of her weight as she leans heavily on him. “Enough,” he admits. “Thank you,” he adds, pausing momentarily, “for not telling her that her Papa was the idiot who made deals with fiends.”

“Not an idiot,” Vex protests. “Never an idiot.”

He chuckles. “My dear, you have personally called me an idiot on multiple occasions.”

“Yes, well, I never meant it.”

The twins are mercifully still sleeping when they enter the nursery. They take a moment to watch them, the way they gravitate toward each other, almost always touching, and she wonders if she and Vax were the same. “You know, I think I’m beginning to see how much they actually look alike.”

Percy snorts. “I think that’s the sleep deprivation talking, dear.”

“I’m serious, Percy,” she says. “It’s more subtle, obviously, but they’re definitely twins.”

He studies their children for a moment, then she feels him shrug. “As with most things, dear, I’m going to assume that you’re right.”

“Damn straight,” she mumbles as he leads her to the bed. She collapses immediately, exhaustion finally taking over. She knows it won’t last, knows she probably won’t get more than an hour’s rest before one or more of her children demand her attention, but for now? She is at peace.


End file.
